Barnes had signed an education reform law that required local schools and teachers to meet stricter accountability standards. Perdue criticized Barnes for enacting a law that moved so much control of local school matters to the state level.

“Schools should be run from the principal’s office, not the governor’s office,” Perdue would say.

Well, just hire any woman from Augusta who, in preparing her home to rent during Masters Week, has turned spring cleaning into an art form. But let’s clarify: there’s spring cleaning, which is the obligatory airing out of any vestiges of winter, and then there’s Masters Spring Cleaning, which is a complete overhaul of everything from attic to basement, and front porch to back patio.

For decades, students at the traditional public schools in Georgia have been denied the chance to win a state championship because the system overseen by the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) ignores the fact that there is no parity among traditional public schools, private schools, and city schools.

We hear so much lately about all the projects that would be funded with continuation of the Columbia County Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or E-SPLOST. Naturally, most of those projects are aimed toward the unincorporated areas of the county where most of the population resides. Those voters can see plenty of reasons to vote in favor of continuing E-SPLOST.

Last week, however, presented one of those rare situations where the GOP leadership needed the Democratic minority to move one of the most important pieces of legislation this session: the transportation tax bill (HB 170) that would revise the gasoline excise tax and raise nearly $1 billion annually to maintain the state’s highways.

In the House of Representatives, Democrats provided the votes that enabled Speaker David Ralston and his cohorts to push HB 170 to final passage after the bill had been stalling for more than a month.